


Two Vagrants, At Large

by misura



Category: Samurai Champloo
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-25
Updated: 2011-11-25
Packaged: 2017-10-27 22:12:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/300600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Mugen was a lot of things, but he wasn't a thief.</i></p><p><i>Sometimes.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Vagrants, At Large

**Author's Note:**

  * For [imadra_blue](https://archiveofourown.org/users/imadra_blue/gifts).



"Flip it, baby," Mugen said to the good-looking chick with big hooters he totally would be looking at right now if it hadn't been for the small detail that he'd only got one coin left in his pocket, and it was tiny, and he wondered what the fuck was wrong with him anyway, that he noticed this kind of stuff.

... Okay, he probably wouldn't be _looking_ at her, but seriously, what was wrong with only worrying about money you didn't have when you were, like, hungry and naked and tied up and about to die from starvation? It'd worked for him just fine, before.

"Heads, I'm doing fine; tails, I - whatever." He flipped the coin. With _restraint_ , even, and if that wasn't a clear sign of how bad things were, he didn't know what was.

It came up heads. Of course. "Fuck."

 

Mugen was a lot of things, but he wasn't a thief.

Sometimes.

 

Jin turned out to be kind of hard to track down, which shouldn't come as a surprise, really - bastard was probably doing it on purpose, just because he'd figured out what Mugen would be doing before Mugen'd figured it out himself, except that he wasn't quite good enough, so there, Mugen won.

It took more than a lack of burnt down taverns and Wanted posters to throw Mugen off your trail, and clearly, Jin hadn't got it.

What he did have, apparently, was a contract to play bodyguard to some old geezer or something, which made Mugen feel a little bit better, because it seemed like a pretty clear sign Jin had gone 'round the bend a hell of a lot worse than Mugen had, even if it also sort of pissed Mugen off.

Steady jobs were for losers.

 

As it turned out, when you were hungry enough to steal food, it was kind of important to make sure you weren't quite hungry enough to stop being able to run really fast.

Or differently put: dine'n'dash all the way, baby.

 

"Mugen," Jin said. "You wished to speak with me?" He looked, Mugen was appalled to realize, _middle-aged_. Also: like he'd been eating lots better than Mugen.

Clearly, this whole thing was way more serious than he'd thought.

"You and me, fight to the death, right here, right now, whaddaya say?" Maybe it was a trick of the light or something. It happened. Or so he'd heard. Mostly to women who'd look gorgeous one moment, when you weren't able to see them real well, and then you saw them in a proper-lit room or the moonlight or something and they turned out to be fuck ugly, but hey, maybe it could work the other way, too. Not like Mugen was an expert or anything.

"No, thank you."

"Say what?"

"I'm sure my wife would not approve," Jin said. "Also, I have been informed I am soon to be a father."

" _Say what?_ "

 

It was fucking _cold_ , the ground was too hard (and there were rocks, too), his blanket had holes in it, and he hadn't eaten anything good in over a week.

Mugen stared up at the night sky, all contemplating-like, and decided that life?

Fucking _awesome_.

 

He did catch up with Jin, eventually, only about ten minutes before he did, he smelled smoke and five minutes before he did, there was a dead body, which would've been a good sign, except that the way Mugen looked at it, the more guys Jin killed, the fewer were left for him.

As it turned out, Jin had killed a _lot_ of guys, and there were really very few left for Mugen. As in: zero.

"What the fuck?" Mugen wasn't pissed. He'd been there, done that, treated it the way he'd never in his life treated a woman - which was to say he'd both gone to bed with it _and_ got up with it again the next morning. "You got a problem or something? You never heard about sharing?"

"Mugen," Jin said, and he looked a little surprised and a little confused and a little like he'd enjoyed the hell out of killing a bunch of guys before Mugen got here and not the least middle-aged, so Mugen could've almost forgotten about the whole thing, except not really.

"I came all this fucking way only because _you_ can't keep track of your own fucking shit, but do I get a thank-you? I don't think so!" He considered tossing out that line about a fight to the death, right here, right now, except that to say it _now_ would make it sound like this was all about his returning Jin's stuff, like _that_ was what he was mad about, which, well, yeah, he was, but. But he'd never wanted to fight Jin for any sort of reason, except that he figured it'd be fun.

"Mugen," Jin said, again. "You have something of mine?"

Mugen put his hands on his hips. "Yeah, but you can't have it now."

"I see." Jin peered at him through his glasses. "What is it?"

"Nu-uh. I'm not saying. And you owe me, like, twenty-six blowjobs."

Jin cleaned his sword. Rubbing it in, the bastard. "How did you reach that number?"

"One for each guy you killed before I got here," Mugen said promptly. "Fair's fair."

Jin looked like he wanted to say something, but in the end, he apparently decided not to. Mugen experienced the warm glow of being in the right - or possibly it was anticipation.

 

Well, at least Jin'd forked over some money for a good meal for both of them.

Also, he informed Mugen he'd quit the bodyguard job after, like, two days, in a tone that made it clear he didn't like talking about it, so Mugen asked all sorts of questions and that was kind of fun.

 

"Why are we traveling together again?" Jin asked, after the fifth inn keeper had taken one look at Mugen and then told them there wasn't any room left for two guests, no, not even paying ones.

"Because you want your stuff back, and I'm not going to hand it over just like that."

Jin considered. "If I knew what it was, I suppose it's possible I'd want it back."

"Yeah," Mugen said. "Nice try, buddy."

Jin frowned. Or, well, Mugen couldn't actually see his face in the dark, but Jin had this face he made when Mugen was being smarter than he was, and Mugen was pretty damn sure he was making that face now, and it definitely involved a frown. "These people seem to recognize you."

"Could be they've still got that bounty on my head," Mugen said. He thought he'd mentioned it before, but possibly Jin hadn't been paying attention at the time.

Jin stopped walking. "Is it a lot of money?"

"Depends on what you call 'a lot'."

 

The way Mugen looked at it, they could either have sex or try to sleep, and Jin made it rather clear the back alley didn't meet his high standards for places to sleep, so Mugen figured that pretty much settled that; they were going to be doing _something_ , and clearly, that something should be sex.

"I'm not going to give you eight blowjobs simply because you were late," Jin said, and that was just so completely unfair, not to mention way past the best-by date, given that it'd been two weeks ago. Also Jin's number was way off. There'd been that one guy near the tree, and those three guys near that other tree, and two guys to the left of another tree (they'd been in a forest, okay?) and the two in front of Jin. Clearly, the correct total was fifteen.

On the other hand, eight blowjobs was still better than none. "Who were those guys, anyway?"

Jin shrugged. "It appears my former employer is dissatisfied with the way I resigned from my position."

"What, you mean you didn't kill him already?" Mugen'd assumed the guy was dead, really. Common sense. "What kind of moron walks away from a job as a bodyguard without at least killing off the guy he was supposed to look after?" Mugen wouldn't, that was for sure. Then again, Mugen'd never have taken the job in the first place, unless if it'd paid really well. Maybe. For a little while.

"The same kind of moron who gets his ugly face plastered all over this city and then forgets to mention this circumstance when he returns a mere three days after his crimes."

"Hey!" Mugen said, before he figured out that, really, what Jin was saying that Mugen wasn't any stupider than he was, which - well, kind of open to argument, but also halfway to a nice thing to say. "Damn right."

 

Well, at least they weren't bored or something. And some of those guys had some money on them, and Mugen had absolutely no problem stealing from dead people, especially not dead people who'd tried to kill him - really, if they'd wanted to keep their money safe, they should've just left it at home or something, not thinking ahead, that was their problem.

 

"You still owe me seven blowjobs."

Jin cleaned his sword with one of those soft rags that tasted really awful when you tried to eat them because you figured they'd taste better than your hat. "You still haven't told me what item of mine is still in your possession."

"Trade you," Mugen offered, because why not? Jin's blowjobs were - well, they were all right. Not bad. Kind of nice, actually. Not as good as they would've been if Jin'd been a beautiful woman, but you couldn't have everything.

"All right," Jin said.

Mugen reached into his bag. "Okay. Here it is. But you better keep your promise this time. Seven blowjobs. And don't think I'm not going to count them."

Jin looked down at the thing Mugen was holding out to him. He did not seem overjoyed to see it, but oh well - Mugen'd never said anything about _that_.

"It looks like a pebble."

"Stuck in my foot for a whole day," Mugen said accusingly.

"I see."

"Almost threw it away." No need to mention he actually _had_. All pebbles looked alike, really.

"If - " Jin hesitated. "We will fight to the death, one of these days."

"Yeah?" Mugen wondered if maybe the pebble had been too much.

"To part ways again, before that has happened, would be inconvenient."

"Guess we should stick together for a while," Mugen said, relaxing. "Maybe check up on Fuu, what do you say? Might be someone's giving her some trouble again."

"Yes," Jin said. "A good idea."


End file.
